Re? 2 unarmed F16s out of Andrews - I saw that also.
What xone mentions though - the “normal” 20mm gatling gun. I would have thought that they’d keep that thing, if not loaded, ready to be loaded fast. It’s kind of a machine gun and would be pretty effective at taking out an airliner, or even just an engine on an airliner. Have no idea how easy it is to aim those things. I’m use to things that you hold in your arm and look through sights or a scope.
I suppose that there were some lessons learned after 9/11, about the readiness of our defense fleet. I mean, if an adversary launched a hundred planes from some undetected carriers, we’d need to be ready to react ASAP (not that there’d be any undetected carriers out there).
In a fighter against an airliner? Pretty easy, you could ask the Russians, but that guy used a missile.